Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Charity of the Month: Fisher House

We're driving a bit more traffic than usual here thanks to Transformers coming out, and a few of the more recent scribblings. Time to harness some of the Geek energy.

Charity of the month is Fisher House. As you can see on the web page, they provide homes for families so they can be close to to their wounded servicemen and women while they take the often months-long, grueling road to recovery after an injury received in combat or any other hospitalization. From their web page:

"Because members of the military and their families are stationed worldwide and must often travel great distances for specialized medical care, Fisher House™ Foundation donates "comfort homes," built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful times - during the hospitalization for an unexpected illness, disease, or injury.

There is at least one Fisher House™ at every major military medical center to assist families in need and to ensure that they are provided with the comforts of home in a supportive environment. Annually, the Fisher House™ program serves more than 8,500 families, and have made available more than two million days of lodging to family members since the program originated in 1990. Based on a comparison of fees at a Fisher House™ (the average charge is less than $10 per family per day, with many locations offering rooms at no cost) with commercial lodging facilities in the same area, it is estimated that families have saved more than $60 million by staying at a Fisher House™ since the program began."

These men and women are getting shot up so we don't have to. With somewhere in the vicinity of 30,000 troops wounded so far in Iraq, this service is needed now more than ever. And frankly, I don't care where you stand on the ideological spectrum -- helping service families be together during such a tough time is righteous.

For those of you new to the Kung Fu Monkey Charity of the Month, it works this way: if you donate using the button to the left, it dumps into the Kung Fu Monkey PayPal account, which allows me to track the amount we raise for the month. End of the month, I match it. If you fel hinky tossing money into a PayPal account of some random web dude, you can instead donate directly to Fisher House here. Just e-mail me and let me know you did so. I'll take your word on it, and match those donations too.

Here's the cool bit. Don Murphy, friend and Transformers producer, has agreed to hop in too. So your donation to Fisher House is not just doubled, but tripled. Toss in five bucks, it turns into $15. Toss in $10 equal to some popcorn and sodas at the big-ass robot movie, and you just donated $30.

We are a geek-powered force-multiplier here at KFM.

That's not all. I'm currently contacting some other Hollywood friends -- by the end of the month, your dollar will be flipped at least once or twice more.

So if you find anything insightful, amusing, or even just entertainingly annoying here at KFM, please donate to Fisher House through the button at the right, or directly to them here. And if you HATE my writing, then donate more -- bankrupt me of my filthy Hollywood monies! Bankrupt me with your HATE!

Thanks for reading, and thanks for giving.

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